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Dear Donna I found your statement interesting ..." the principal doesn't think he can insist on library books to be returned" and while I'm not interested in starting a debate about whether he can or cannot, I think you need to keep him in the loop by showing him how much money has been saved by your not having to replace 'lost' books because of your actions. Like it or not, everything is coming down to the economic position and so this is something they need to be aware of. One of the most powerful strategies I used when I had a less-than-supportive-principal was to count the total number of outstanding books, and I pulled that same number off the shelves and stacked them up on the table at our weekly staff meeting (primary school of 450 students). Making a visual statement like that which included a large sign of how much it represented and how much of the following year's budget was already committed to replacing the titles at the expense of new stuff certainly had an impact. After the staff meeting, I took the books back to the library and left the pile on prominent display with a notice to the effect that for every missing book returned, one would be taken off the pile and returned to the shelf. The 'game' was to have every book off that pile, and the person returning a missing book had the pleasure of reshelving the one fro the pile. It worked! Maybe in a high school you could have a thermometer-type target with the value of the missing books marked. My imagination says to give each book an average value of say $25.00 (use an appropriate figure) and have a post-it note strip for each $25.00. When a book is returned, that post-it note strip is removed with the idea of the target going down to zero. Have a notice that says "This is what we could have spent on new resources but now we need to spend it on replacing the books staff and students have not returned." Visual reinforcements mean more than words that hang in the air for a few seconds and are lost as soon as something else is said. And it saves your nagging which tires you and which the kids ignore. Barbara Barbara Braxton Teacher Librarian COOMA NSW 2630 AUSTRALIA E. barbara.288@bigpond.com Together we learn from each other -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html * LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/ --------------------------------------------------------------------